Department stores often store merchandise in stockrooms adjacent to a retail sales floor. The stockroom serves as a waiting area for goods that will be sent to the sales floor. For example, stockrooms usually include a loading area where store employees unload large pallets of boxed merchandise before moving the merchandise to the stockroom floor. The employees temporarily place the merchandise on shelves in the storeroom until the store employees are instructed to move the merchandise to the sales floor.
Many stockrooms are designed to accommodate both large pallets of merchandise and loose goods, i.e., goods not in boxes. The aisles separating stockroom shelving units are generally wide enough to allow merchandise pallets to fit in the aisles, while the height of the shelving units allow numerous pallets to be placed on each shelf. For example, each aisle may be approximately 3 feet wide flanked on either side by shelving units approximately 12 feet tall.
Store employees retrieve items placed on the stockroom shelves using a variety of tools. For example, employees often use ladders to reach goods placed on the upper portion of a shelf. Once the items have been placed on the floor, employees may prepare the goods to be transported to the sales floor. For example, the employees may unpack large merchandise pallets and remove the individual boxed goods that they will later transport to the stockroom floor.
Store employees generally transport the items to the sales floor by first transporting the selected items to the end of the aisle and placing them in a large wheeled tub. The tubs are generally square and about three feet tall; however, they generally are too wide to be moved down the aisles described above. Employees usually carry the items to tubs by hand or bring them to the tubs in the type of shopping cart typically found in a grocery store. After the items have been loaded into the tub, the employees may move the items to the sales floor using the tub.